1. Field of Application
This invention relates to pin or post type loose leaf binders and more especially to operating members for the releasable binder locks thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A significant number of books are made available to the public in a loose-leaf format. This is especially true for professional and business books and literature of the type which must be updated on a regular basis such as yearly or the like. There are many services providing such material and it has been found to be of great advantage and much less costly to be able to merely add and substitute some pages of text rather than replace the entire book.
The very familiar three, or five, ring binder is sometimes used for such texts; but such binders were found to present significant limitations for sizable texts. In addition the rings often became unaligned and the opening and closing mechanisms easily became either difficult or impossible to operate.
In the alternative, wide use has been found for post type loose-leaf binders wherein the binder is formed from a front cover section and a back cover section which are releasably secured together to form the binder and which are separable, one from the other, for the purpose of filling or changing the contents of the binder. Each cover section, of such post or pin type binders, usually include a cover member and a side flange or spine member interconnected one to the other in a hinged manner to facilitate opening and closing of the binder. A rib is usually carried by each side flange so as to extend substantially along the length thereof parallel to and in proximity to the hinge. The rib carried by the side flange of the rear cover section usually carries a pair of spaced posts, or pins, adapted to receive the leaves of the text, which have been appropriately punched; as well as a centrally disposed locking post. A narrow plate, also usually provided for such binders, is formed with a relatively large centrally disposed fastening sleeve receiving aperture and a pair of spaced posts, or pins, also adapted to pass through the appropriately punched leaves of the text. The fastening sleeve assembly is carried by the rib of the front cover section in a central position and is formed with an outer sleeve inwardly tapered at its lowest extremity, and a hollow inner sleeve to receive the locking post. It is further provided with a plurality of balls adapted to grip the locking post to releasably secure the members together. A spring urges the inner sleeve into its locking condition, an extending pin is positioned in the sleeve so that it extends out the other extremity of the inner sleeve, while an operating member, usually in the form of a ring, is connected to the extending pin to facilitate movement thereof against the spring action to release the lock.
In most of such post type loose-leaf binders, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,869,790 granted to Walter F. Wolf on Aug. 2, 1932 for Loose Leaf Binder And Lock, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,308,363 granted to James P. Guinane on Jan. 12, 1943 for Loose Leaf Binder Locking Mechanism and in U.S. Pat. No. 2,568,227 granted to Max W. Federbush on Sept. 18, 1957 for Loose-Leaf Binder, the operating ring is made large enough to allow a finger of the user to pass through the ring. Such rings have, however presented problems in that they must be carefully positioned prior to closing the front cover of the binder or either the ring or cover, or both, may be damaged and further use of the binder impaired. The user of binders with such relatively large rings is forced to remember to rotate the ring so that when placed in an inoperative position, it is parallel to the closed cover or otherwise if it is perpendicular it will not fold down when the binder is closed and will either be bent or will tear through the cover of the binder.
Some binders, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,143 granted to Max W. Federbush and Alexander P. Federbush on Nov. 29, 1966 for Loose Leaf Book Lock, have attempted to control and cure this problem by constraining the operating inner sleeve to sliding motion only to thus maintain the ring in an aligned condition. However, users of these binders normally believe it necessary to turn the ring even though it is constrained against turning and thus when opening the binder forceably turn the ring. This turning either removes the ring from the post and causes the post mechanism to become partially disassembled or destroys the post mechanism itself.
In many of these binders, such as the one shown in said U.S. Pat. No. 2,568,227 the operating ring is bent in a circle with the split ends abutting and passes completely through the operating end of an inner sleeve. The ring will often position itself so that split in the ring is in the opening in the sleeve.
Disposition of the ring split within the hole of the operating end of the sleeve member presents problems in and of itself because the forces applied to the ring, to slide the inner sleeve to unlocked condition, sometimes result in separation of the ring ends and of the ring from the sleeve. Subsequent replacement is sometimes difficult and failure to prevent further use of the binder. This problem is even more pronounced when the operating end of the inner sleeve is merely reassessed to receive spaced ends of an operating ring such as shown in said U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,143. In such mechanisms the inability of the inner sleeve to completely rotate, and the spaced condition of the ring ends very often results in forces upon the ring, when operating same to separate the binder covers, which result in separation thereof from the operating end of the inner sleeve and the aforementioned problems.